Intro
Chair, Members of the Committee, thank you for the invitation to address you today. I welcome the opportunity to discuss food labelling, in particular beef labelling, with members of the Food Safety Authority of Ireland and the Department of Agriculture Food and the Marine.
In this opening statement, I will outline the role of Bord Bia and more specifically provide detail on the operation and development of our sustainability and quality assurance programmes on behalf of the agri-food industry. I will focus on the labelling and traceability aspects of these initiatives.
Bord Bia & Origin Green
Operating out of 14 offices globally, Bord Bia’s mandate is to promote Irish food and drink worldwide. Our purpose is to bring Ireland’s outstanding food and drink to the world, thus enabling growth and sustainability of the agri-food sector. Ireland exports €19 billion to 140 countries, underpinned by quality assurance, traceability and sustainability. This included €7.3 billion of dairy ingredients and consumer products, €3.6 billion of prepared consumer foods, €2.0 billion of spirits and beers, €0.6 billion of seafood, and €5 billion of primary meat & livestock, of which €3.4 billion was beef.
Central to these efforts is Origin Green, now in its fourteenth year as Ireland’s national food and drink sustainability programme. The Origin Green programme evolved out of Bord Bia’s long-established Quality Assurance programmes to meet the increasing challenges of the climate crisis and create competitive advantage in the marketplace, across all sectors. This umbrella national sustainability programme provides independently verified sustainability assurance to international customers.
For the purpose of today’s discussion, it is important to note that the Origin Green logo itself is strictly a business‑to‑business (B2B) sustainability mark, meaning it has never, is not and cannot be used on consumer‑facing product packaging. This ensures that the logo is not interpreted as a product certification mark or as a guarantee of product‑level sustainability performance, unlike the Bord Bia Quality Assurance Mark which is a consumer facing mark, that can be used on pack.
Origin Green currently has a membership of 370 companies driving their sustainability performance through independent verification and continuous improvement.
Bord Bia Sustainability & Quality Assurance | Product-Level Assurance
Farmers participation is through Bord Bia’s Sustainability and Quality Assurance Schemes. The schemes are built on best practice, legislation, and relevant international standards and customer requirements in relation to food safety, quality, traceability, animal welfare and sustainability.
The scale of the beef scheme, the Sustainable Beef and Lamb Assurance Scheme (SBLAS), is significant, with more than 58,000 beef farmers now engaged, collectively accounting for over 95 percent of all finished cattle annually. Each farm is visited every 18 months, with more than 50,000 audits completed each year across Bord Bia’s farm programmes.
Bord Bia Quality Assurance in the Processing Plant
The next stage in assurance for a beef product is in the processing plant, in this instance a meat processing plant. The processing companies who wish to bring Quality Assured product to the market, must adhere to the Bord Bia Food Processor Standard. Processors undergo an annual audit of their management practices regarding food safety, quality and traceability, with additional unannounced inspections to verify compliance. At intake, farmers cattle are received, at which point their quality assurance status is checked through the Bord Bia database. No farmer information is exchanged in this process; the system provides a true or false response whether the individual animal is Quality Assured or not.
To enable full traceability of Quality Assured meat, comprehensive documents and product checks take place. As part of the food processor audit, auditors complete a traceability and segregation reconciliation assessment and can request production records from any point since the plant’s initial certification.
Bord Bia Quality Assurance Mark: Beef Labelling
The Bord Bia Quality Assurance Mark with the ‘Origin Ireland’ logo may only be used on beef from animals that are born, raised and slaughtered in the Republic of Ireland, and only when processed by certified members of the Food Processor Scheme to ensure traceability across the supply chain.
To demonstrate Bord Bia’s commitment to the integrity of our systems, Bord Bia has maintained accreditation and certification with the Irish National Accreditation Board and the National Standards Authority of Ireland.
Bord Bia is responsible for ensuring proper use of the logo and enforces clear policies and corrective action. Bord Bia also conducts quarterly retail audits across Ireland’s major retailers to assess compliance. These audits focus on product sampling and assess approximately 3,000 products per audit to ensure requirements are met, including the correct use of the Bord Bia Quality Assurance logo and certified supply chains.
Consumer Confidence
The Bord Bia Quality Assurance mark delivers extremely high, unrivalled consumer confidence in Ireland. Research indicates that the mark enjoys 94 percent prompted awareness and 73 percent unprompted awareness among Irish consumers, reflecting its importance as a symbol of trust. The second most recognised mark sits at 23 percent.
Outside of Ireland our quality assurance is equally important. Quality Assured beef is central to our export customer proposition and has enabled Ireland to secure and retain significant customer listings in multiple competitive markets. Consequently, Irish beef currently has the enviable position in key markets of being the second choice to local product.
Chair, Members of the Committee, thank you once again for inviting me to speak with you this afternoon and for the opportunity to illuminate and demonstrate how Bord Bia works extremely hard to ensure high standards of integrity, compliance and consumer trust through our sustainability and quality assurance programmes. I would be pleased to take any questions you may have.